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Federal Policy Regarding State-Legal Hemp Production

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"The 113th Congress considered various changes to U.S. policies regarding industrial hemp during the omnibus farm bill debate.42 The 2014 farm bill43 provides that certain 'institutions of higher education'44 and state departments of agriculture may grow industrial hemp, as part of an agricultural pilot program, if allowed under state laws where the institution or state department of agriculture is located. The farm bill also established a statutory definition of industrial hemp as 'the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of such plant, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.' The provision was included as part of the research title of the law. The provision did not include an effective date that would suggest any kind of program rollout, and there appears to be nothing in the conference report or bill language to suggest that the states might not be able to immediately initiate action on this provision."

Source:

Johnson, Renée, "Hemp As An Agricultural Commodity," Congressional Research Service (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, March 10, 2017), p. 13.https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R...